Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Blogging Against Disablism Day

I am replacing the May 1st post with this one as this space has already got so many links to it and will the place folks are most likely to come back to.

Thank you very much to everyone for your contributions and comments on Blogging Against Disablism Day.

Some people to thank in particular. Lady Bracknell has been an absolute rock through this, she advised me about revisions to my original idea, helped spread the word to BBC Ouch, wrote the inspiring One In Seven and took on half the work in the last few days, reading and catergorising blogs.

Both BBC Ouch and Ragged Edge have given us loads of support and exposure. Several bloggers helped spread the word through the blogosphere, on forums and through other contacts.

Writing on a set subject on a specified day isn't always easy for people with restrictive impairments and/ or work schedules so I realise that many people had to juggle things around or push themselves especially hard to contribute. So thanks very much to them.

I also realised that having this event on a single day meant that some people, such as Bookgirl were not able to contribute as they would have liked. That is certainly something which must be thought about in the future.

Lady Bracknell and I intended to do a summing-up exercise, where we discussed the various subjects raised. However, given the vast quantity and high quality of posts, it would take us an amount of time and energy which we simply don't have in order to do justice to such a task.

It would also be immensely difficult to talk about highlights. A number of bloggers have reflected on their own favourite posts. I gave a short list to Crippled Monkey which I hoped emphasised the wide variety of topics covered. However, there were so many excellent posts, some funny or fascinating, others inspiring and some deeply moving, each powerful for very different reasons. It doesn't seem fair, as hosts of the event, to discuss favourites at the risk of missing anyone out.

However, instead of a lengthy write-up, we have attempted to roughly catergorise the posts and used permanent links so that folks can refer back to this in the future.

It was quite a task to categorise everybody. Obviously, some people touched on more than one subject, so these categories are approximate. I shall almost certainly do some shuffling around as I read over some of these posts a second time, so do bear with me if it doesn't make perfect sense just yet.

However if anybody spots an obvious mistake or an omission, don't hestitate to speak up.

Thanks very much to everyone.Blogging Against Disablism Day 2006List of Participating Blogs

Kudos to you for getting this off the ground. I've been tracking via Technorati since I got up this morning (late Sunday night, UK time) - it was great to see all the keen ones appear just after midnight BST! All very thought provoking - made me confront some of my personal thoughts and issues clearly, for the first time.

A huge round of applause to you and Lady Bracknell for all your organisation of this :-).

My only *direct* experience of disablism, that I can remember (as opposed to society's in general) was going into an exhibition and being told "the wheelchair can go in free"... Of course, I wasn't mentally quick enough to reply "So, how much for me" or "I'm sure it'll will enjoy it, can I give it a notepad so it can tell me all about it afterwards?".

To give the organizers some credit, access wasn't great (what's new?!) so I think that was the reason for the freebie, rather than general charity.

Thanks for organizing this, it is most definitely as important and vital as Blog Against Racism or Blog Against Sexism Day or Blog Against Heteronormativity Day and I think and hope that the blogosphere will embrace it with jus tas much excitement and righteous anger.

I'm totally late and didn't say I would participate ahead of time, but I just thought anything would be better than being silent. (It's easy NOT to say anything, isn't it?) So my post, however good it might or might not be, is up here. :)

My web site's been down, but I posted at an older blog and then copied my post to my LiveJournal account and my Xanga account and my MySpace account. As soon as my site's back up, I'll put the post on that blog, too. But you can read my post here.

Thank you for doing this- I am extremely excited by this idea and wish I had not been late with my greeting. Ah well- it is posted as an invite to anyone who wants to look at what it is like to live as a support of someone who has a work injury - long term. Snoop away and enjoy.

This is amazing. I hope you come for a visit -- I am organizing The Joy of Autism: Redefining Ability and Quality of Life -- an event in Toronto from October 5-November 5 featuring speakers and exhibitions.

Just wanted to drop you a quiet(ish) line and say how absolutely brilliant I think BADD was/is and what a fantastic job you've done. Thankyou so much for making it happen, and I hope you're enjoying some well-earned rest now.

As well as thanking you for the work you (and others) have done on making BADD so good, I want to say thank you for having the idea.

The way it has brought people together and the experiences and feelings we will have reading each other's entries is, um, I don't know quite how to put it, but - immense. I'm spending some time online dipping into people's blogs and hearing their stories and there isn't a one that hasn't taught me something, made me laugh, or want to cry - all have made me think. It's prompted us to share things that are profoundly important and need to be heard.

I don't know if you wish to keep the links correct for the 2006 BADD? If you do, I've changed my post (Aw Diddums, under employment issues) to:http://diddums.wordpress.com/2006/05/01/d-i-s-a-b-l-i-s-m/